This nonlinear style of storytelling is ultimately the fatal flaw for Rick and Morty: The Anime. With the anime having to tell its story out of order, conversations between characters could never really allude to anything happening because it was unclear as to when a particular scene was taking place. It wasn’t clear as to what the actual timeline of the series looks like, and that was an issue that was carried all the way to the end.
They took R&M, stripped out all the recognizable parts except the names, ignoring anything that made folks fans of the original.
So the canon was ripped out and a new show created that never had an audience.
Yeah, that’s the problem. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯